Bay area veterans' trip to war memorial in jeopardy | News

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Tampa, Florida - Congressional Republicans failed to move forward Tuesday with a piecemeal approach to fund popular parts of the federal government to lessen the impact of the first government shutdown in 17 years.

House and Senate Republicans had offered short-term funding plans to keep open national parks, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and other government services in the nation's capital.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said the piecemeal approach would "continue to move the ball down the field" toward finding an agreement to resume full government funding. But the GOP efforts failed to win the necessary support in the House to advance to the Senate. The votes fell well short of the two-thirds threshold needed to suspend House rules.

Leonard Black says, "It's shameful. It's really a disgrace."

That was his reaction after learning a group of World War II veterans were denied access to the World War II memorial in Washington, DC Tuesday due to the government shutdown.

Nearly 100 World War II veterans made the trip from Mississippi through the Honor Flight program to see the memorial only to be blocked from entering by several metal barricades.

That has Black worried. He's the co-founder of Honor Flight of West Central Florida, where two flights to take more than 160 veterans is planned for this month. One of the trips is scheduled to leave in a matter of days and many of the veterans gearing up to go are from the Bay area. That trip is now up in the air.

Black says they don't want to cancel it and they're hoping lawmakers will get the government back up and running. "Because we feel this is going to go over and we can go. This is our wish."

No one knows how much World War II veterans appreciate the all-expenses paid trip to DC to see the war memorials than Black. The military hero served our country for 25 years and he fought in World War II. He says, "I've been up there several times and I get a little upset over it right now thinking about it."

Back at the memorial, Republican congressmen defied the National Park Service and opened the barricade for the veterans as people cheered. But while the vets there say they're grateful they got in to see their memorial, they still have a strong message for Congress.

One vet said, "I'm disgusted with them. Get up off and do something."

Black is encouraging everyone in the Bay area to get up and call their congressman, which is something he also did on Tuesday. He says time is critical because of the age of many of the veterans. One of the veterans scheduled to go on the trip on October 8 is a terminally ill patient, and another was just released from a medical facility. Black says both men are excited to be able to go.